and a half years reaching out to vladimir putin, it was called the reset policy started by hillary clinton. about two years ago that policy ended. so the reset has been over to. it's well over, everybody knows that, both sides know that. so this is not the end of the u.s./russia reset. this is, like, the middle of the next phase already. so we should be clear about that. as for whether or not obama's weakness emboldens those around the world, that's not 100% fair. my take on it is this: the obama administration always had a broad vision and an ideology that included bringing the u.s. out of the position of active control of all of the world's conflicts, right? they don't believe that america has the preeminent role to play in every situation in the world. they do believe america should be the world's leader, and it's a distinction, but it's an important one. so you can look at that and say that that has left a vacuum for other powers to fill and that, i think, is fair, but weakness is sort of pejorative, and it doesn't really reflect the thoughtfulness that actually goes into the obama adm